U.S. rocket-testing plans at Pacific atoll stir controversy

U.S. rocket-testing plans at Pacific atoll stir controversy

Hawaii conservation groups are voicing their opposition to plans by the U.S. Space Force to conduct cargo rocket testing at Johnston Atoll, a national wildlife refuge in the Pacific. The atoll, known as Kalama to Hawaiians, lies within the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument. It was used in earlier decades as a nuclear testing site but is now a refuge to seabirds, including one of the largest known nesting populations of red-tailed…